Dealmaking in South Dakota
A small assisted living community in South Dakota sold thanks to the team at Evans Senior Investments. An institutional owner/operator engaged Evans to facilitate the sale in order to redeploy capital into new opportunities. The community was built in the last decade with 33 units of private pay assisted living, with a functional bed capacity of 40. It was a strong operator and often had a waitlist, so we imagine it ran at a healthy margin. A provider with experience operating similar communities in comparable markets was selected as the buyer, making its first entry into South Dakota with the deal. They paid $4.3 million, or $130,300 per unit. Read More »
Behavioral Buyer Acquires AL Asset
As investors and developers look ahead to the potential supply-and-demand imbalance in seniors housing in the coming years, we must consider the effect of conversion projects on future supply of assisted living units. With higher expenses and higher capital costs, not every assisted living community (particularly those that are small and/or older) will operate profitably as an assisted living business in the future, depending on the local market, of course. So sellers will increasingly look to alternative use buyers to get either an acceptable price or just any buyer. We have seen more and more behavioral health buyers look to struggling seniors housing properties for just such... Read More »
Blackstone Divests in Kentucky
A large seniors housing community in Lexington, Kentucky, sold with the help of the team at Newmark. Built in 1986 and renovated in both 2015 and 2022 (a significant $6 million renovation in 2022), Richmond Place features 257 units of independent living, assisted living and memory care. There are 183 IL, 60 AL and 14 MC units. We understand the property improved its operations in the last couple years, now exceeding prepandemic occupancy and nearing 95%. With a healthy rate increase pushed through in 2023, we imagine its operating margin has improved as well. It has most recently been operated by LCS but was previously managed by Brookdale Senior Living for many years. American... Read More »
Sonida Senior Living Keeps Pushing Census
We have been impressed by Sonida Senior Living management’s ability to get out of its census, cash flow and balance sheet difficulties over the past year. After some acquisitions this year, the company now operates 93 senior living communities, most of them owned. In the third quarter, same-community occupancy for 61 communities increased by 210 basis points year over year to 87.0%. That is well ahead of many other operators, as well as higher than the NIC MAP census averages. They are well on their way to hitting the elusive goal of 90% occupancy. Speaking of 90% occupancy, management believes that when they reach it for their same-community portfolio, the NOI margin for these... Read More »
